Welcome to Physics and Astronomy

Learn more about Dr. Fich, the Herschel Space Observatory and its launch in the Spring 2010 issue of UW Magazine.

Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship

On Thursday, May 13th, the federal Minister of Industry officially announced the 2010 recipients of Canada’s highest honor for doctoral students, each chosen as a result of their demonstrated leadership skill and high standard of scholarly achievement. Stephen Inglis, a M.Sc. candidate in the Quantum Matters group, was recognized for his work on “Advanced simulation techniques for exploring exotic phases of quantum matter.”

“Stephen’s research involves using novel computer algorithms to simulate quantum mechanical systems on computers,” said his advisor, Prof. Roger Melko. “Properly done, these simulations can give us a window into the exotic world of quantum matter. But,” he stresses, “they are not easy: one needs a high degree of theoretical and programming savvy, and a large amount of high-performance computing resources from our partner, SHARCNET.”

Stephen’s research has already led to two publications during his M.Sc., including a Monte Carlo study of residual entropy in a frustrated honeycomb Ising model (Physical Review E, 79, 041127 (2009)), and the discovery of a “superglass” phase of interacting bosons, which is set to appear in the prestigious journal Physical Review Letters.

“Simulations like Stephen’s will prove to be one of the main paths to theoretical discovery of new and potentially revolutionary phases in condensed matter,” said Melko.

On winning the award, Stephen said. “This award gives me the opportunity to focus significantly more on my research. It opens doors for further collaboration by recognizing and publicizing the importance of the work that we are doing, and I hope to be involved in many more projects because of it. It is also very encouraging to see interest in your work from outside of your field."

Physics Colloquium

This series of talks will return in September 2010.